Escape From Plan A

Part 1 of 2 Mike, Steve, and Teen have a discussion about buying real assets in a world dominated by financialized investment products. Primarily fun, but also maybe to hedge against future financial crises. Get access to bonus pods and Discord chat by joining our patreon: patreon.com/planamag EFPA Theme: "Escape From Plan A" by Ciel (Twitter: @aerialist)

John Pang joins Jess and Teen from Hangzhou, China to talk about the need to study America as it really is, what life is really like here, and get beyond the outmoded tropes about this place so that the world can better understand us. Get access to bonus pods and Discord chat by joining our patreon: patreon.com/planamag EFPA Theme: "Escape From Plan A" by Ciel (Twitter: @aerialist)

Hen Zee (aka Dr. Z) joins Teen to talk about the recent sentencing and imprisonment of John Ong following a 2020 racist attack at his family's home in Manhattan Chinatown. Why we need to let go of our naive belief in (legal) justice, why and how to get prepared for hostility and danger, and to let go of our childish investments in liberalist ideas. Full video of attack: http://bit.ly/attackonongs Dr. Z IG: http://instagram.com/arsenal_nyc DCC: Instagram.com/dragoncombatclub DCC Class sign-up: http://bit.ly/dccgantry24 Get access to bonus pods and Discord chat by joining our patreon: patreon.com/planamag EFPA Theme: "Escape From Plan A" by Ciel (Twitter: @aerialist)

Part 1 of 2 Mike H. joins Teen to talk about Boeing's shocking failures, financialization, and how the economy became fake. Get access to bonus pods and Discord chat by joining our patreon: patreon.com/planamag EFPA Theme: "Escape From Plan A" by Ciel (Twitter: @aerialist)

Part 1 of 2 John Pang joins Jess and Teen to discuss what Teen saw in person at the Columbia campus over the weekend, the seriousness of the conflict, and why we are seeing internecine warfare within elite institutions and society. Get access to bonus pods and Discord chat by joining our patreon: patreon.com/planamag EFPA Theme: "Escape From Plan A" by Ciel (Twitter: @aerialist)

Jess and Teen record a long pod about nostalgia for retro tech, only to hang up, continue the conversation, and realize the after-talk was actually the better pod. Here is the after-talk , about the virtualization of all technologies into software, the corruption of software as trojan horses into our lives, and the suspect loyalty of the technology we bring into our homes. Get access to bonus pods and Discord chat by joining our patreon: patreon.com/planamag EFPA Theme: "Escape From Plan A" by Ciel (Twitter: @aerialist)

Part 1 of 2 Jess and Teen talk about how time and experience allows a more mercenary and disillusioned relationship with work and jobs, and how the cultish mythology around work and passion (esp in tech) was the cause and not the cure to the anxiety and pressure of careerism. Get access to bonus pods and Discord chat by joining our patreon: patreon.com/planamag EFPA Theme: "Escape From Plan A" by Ciel (Twitter: @aerialist)

Jess and Teen discuss Wim Wenders' 2023 film 'Perfect Days' and what it says about aging and internal monologue. Get access to bonus pods and Discord chat by joining our patreon: patreon.com/planamag EFPA Theme: "Escape From Plan A" by Ciel (Twitter: @aerialist)

Jess is back after a long hiatus to catch up with Teen on important life matters: the importance of spring in New York, the exquisite quality of computer manuals in the 1970s, and what the hell 'internal monologue' means. Get access to bonus pods and Discord chat by joining our patreon: patreon.com/planamag EFPA Theme: "Escape From Plan A" by Ciel (Twitter: @aerialist)

Part 1 of 2 Mike, Steve and Teen find a timezone compromise between LA, NYC, and HK to talk about managing our money in what seems like mad world of overpriced investment assets and unprecedented risk to the US dollar system. Get access to bonus pods and Discord chat by joining our patreon: patreon.com/planamag EFPA Theme: "Escape From Plan A" by Ciel (Twitter: @aerialist)

Part 1 of 2 John Pang joins Teen to talk about the meaning and the reality behind Aaron Bushnell's act of suicide by fire, the cultural context in which that took place, and then a wider discussion about the joys of getting older even surrounded by a culture which fears death and loathes aging. Get access to bonus pods and Discord chat by joining our patreon: patreon.com/planamag EFPA Theme: "Escape From Plan A" by Ciel (Twitter: @aerialist)

Mike and Teen shoot the bull on generative AI, whether Sora + Vision Pro = Holodeck, and general musings about technology of no particular consequence. Get access to bonus pods and Discord chat by joining our patreon: patreon.com/planamag EFPA Theme: "Escape From Plan A" by Ciel (Twitter: @aerialist)

Peter and Teen talk about Peter's newborn baby, the encroachment of the state into the private domain of the family, how zombie apocalypse films are really a pro-family fantasy genre, and home schooling as an option. Get access to bonus pods and Discord chat by joining our patreon: patreon.com/planamag EFPA Theme: "Escape From Plan A" by Ciel (Twitter: @aerialist)

Shan and Teen talk about middle age, how American culture does not prepare people for getting older, and how getting older is severely underrated. It often feels like being a kid again. Get access to bonus pods and Discord chat by joining our patreon: patreon.com/planamag EFPA Theme: "Escape From Plan A" by Ciel (Twitter: @aerialist)

Shan and Teen talk about a very minor episode of losing one's temper at the Costco, why it's important to get mad when you're mad, practice getting mad, and to think obsessively about when you get mad after the fact. Get access to bonus pods and Discord chat by joining our patreon: patreon.com/planamag EFPA Theme: "Escape From Plan A" by Ciel (Twitter: @aerialist)

Part 1 of 2 Steve talks with Mike and Teen about the experience so far of emigrating from the West - in his case, Toronto - and starting an entirely new permanent existence in Hong Kong and China. Get access to bonus pods and Discord chat by joining our patreon: patreon.com/planamag EFPA Theme: "Escape From Plan A" by Ciel (Twitter: @aerialist)

Part 1 of 3 John and Mike join Teen for a marathon weekend shitshoot about the likely trajectory of life in America in 2024. Something has clearly gone off the rails, that's without question, but it's hard to tell where this is headed. We try to get off the strictly political/geopolitical frameworks, and talk more subjectively about the mood in the air and what that might mean for drastic, discontinuous change events in the year ahead. Get access to bonus pods and Discord chat by joining our patreon: patreon.com/planamag EFPA Theme: "Escape From Plan A" by Ciel (@aerialist)

Part 1 of 2 Back home in Bali after an extended trip back to the United States, Carl Zha joins Teen to talk about the view of America from abroad. In part two (available to our Patreon supporters), John Pang jumps on from Hangzhou to offer his take after permanently moving out of the US. Get access to bonus pods and Discord chat by joining our patreon: patreon.com/planamag

Teen is joined by Chris as they reminiscence about the early motivations they'd had for starting Plan A (e.g. Asian American online gender wars, Asian American political awareness) and what does and doesn't matter to them about those topics anymore. Subscribe to Chris' Substack, Salieri Redemption, at: https://salieriredemption.substack.com/ Get access to bonus pods and Discord chat by joining our patreon: patreon.com/planamag EFPA Theme: "Fuck Out My Face" by Ayekay

After a long interlude, Escape From Plan A is back in production! Teen and Shan recount their first trip abroad (to Spain) in almost 4 years -- since right before COVID was discovered -- and the return of novelty to foreign travel. They talk at length about the Prado and the revelatory experience they had without the pressure of worshiping European art and being able to take it in as it as was intended: pure schlock entertainment, no different than Hollywood. Get access to bonus pods and Discord chat by joining our patreon: patreon.com/planamag EFPA Theme: "Escape From Plan A" by Ciel (@aerialist)